After everyone bitched and moaned about the stupidity of the stereotype-ridden Android app, “Is My Son Gay,” Google unilaterally pulled it from their Android Market app store. But here’s something you may not have known: the developer was a gay man.

Openly gay app-trepeneur Christophe de Baran commissioned the program’s development. He developed the program in part to help promote an upcoming comedic novel, also titled “Is My Son Gay?” which treats “difficult moments for families to go through, such as coming out” with “fun and humor.”

The Android Market site still carries other apps like ‘R U Gay Quiz’ and the ‘Gaydar Radar’ which identifies homos based on their pictures. But unlike “Is My Son Gay” both of the aforementioned apps state upfront that their product is a joke.

@David Gervais: Heard a joke on the radio. The “Is my parent an idiot?” app has only one question: “Does your parent have the ‘Is your son gay app?”

Oct 4, 2011 at 9:05 pm · @Reply ·

Red Meat

I don’t think the app should of been removed even if it was stupid and stereotypical. By banning it, it shows that we don’t like people who are those stereotypes which leads to more bullying and what not.

Oct 4, 2011 at 9:41 pm · @Reply ·

iDavid

The questions were interestingly very exgay Exodus oriented and were fallacious and obnoxious. Best its gone as the q’s didn’t prove jack shit and could be very damaging to gay and gay perceived youth.

@hyhybt. From the fact the author didn’t classify it that way and, if you look at the clip of The View, I agree with them. Also those questions are the same questions exgay groups use to convince sexually confused teens and adults into hacking themselves apart for being gay, distant father over bearing mother etc. Some could see it as a joke, I see it as a suicide enabler. I don’t see the humor in that at all, do you?

Oct 5, 2011 at 1:25 am · @Reply ·

Hyhybt

@iDavid: OK. I can see how you could see it that way, if you really wanted to.

Oct 5, 2011 at 1:40 am · @Reply ·

iDavid

Hyhybt……I can see cracking a beer and having a laugh over it, but my red flag comes up when I think of the naive religious right wingnut redneck mother/father who takes the app seriously and railroads their son to suicide over the false info. Then I stop laughing, put down my beer, and my foot, and kick this shitty app to the dust bin. Google obviously saw it the same way.

Oct 5, 2011 at 2:20 am · @Reply ·

Jack Smith

Uh, did anyone notice that the author of this article used “homos” in the last paragraph, instead of saying “homosexuals?”

The more likely explanation is that the app seemed very funny to him after knowing the content of his yet-to-be-published book “Is My Son Gay,” and was obviously a joke. The problem is that nobody else has seen that book. It wouldn’t be the first time a writer has misjudged public reaction.

I know of one attempted writer who produced extremely obscure prose. People who saw him write noted that he’d sit there for a good hour thinking and then put down a sentence that probably made sense if you knew everything going on in his head for the preceding hour, but that sounded really bizarre when read without that context.

Oct 6, 2011 at 1:44 pm · @Reply ·

Dorothy

I don’t think it’s ever funny to make jokes at the expense of others, when it’s possible that your attempts at humor will be misunderstood and become harmful. A book for a niche market is one thing-unless people are total morons (and then perhaps not able to read) they will understand the actual intent of the book-no harm, no foul (unless the book is crap, as I suspect this one may be.) But an app accessible to millions is a potential time-bomb. The irresponsibility of whoever allowed this app to be used in the first place is staggering. And really, promoting book sales by releasing this app? Shameful.